Lt Gen Naravane to be senior-most after Gen Rawat retires

NEW DELHI: In a reshuffle of top Army commanders, Lt-General Manoj Mukund Naravane will be the new chief of the Eastern Command in Kolkata from October 1, while Lt-General Abhay Krishna will take over the reins of the Central Command in Lucknow, as per orders issued on Tuesday.

In other appointments yet to be officially announced, Lt-Gen P S Rajeshwar, director-general of perspective planning at Army headquarters, is tipped to be the new chief of integrated defence staff. Lt-Gen Satinder Kumar Saini, director general of manpower planning and personnel services, is likely to take over as Southern Command chief in Pune. Lt-Gen Rajeev Chopra, commandant of Infantry School at Mhow, will take over as head of the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) in Shimla.

Lt-Gen Naravane, who is currently the ARTRAC chief, will be the senior-most officer in the 1.3-million force when General Bipin Rawat retires in December 2019. The second in line will be Northern Command chief in Udhampur Lt-Gen Ranbir Singh, who was director-general of military operations during the 'surgical strikes' against insurgent camps in Myanmar in 2015 and terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 2016.

Lt-Gen Ranbir Singh was appointed head of an operational command before Lt-Gen Naravane. The latter will now get the requisite experience of heading an operational command in the run-up to the appointment of the next Army chief .

Though successive governments have almost always followed the seniority principle, the NDA government had appointed Gen Rawat as Army chief in 2016 by superseding two lieutenant generals senior to him.